We’ve had a pretty decent weather week for fishing with 3 or so fishable days out of seven, but that’s all about to change drastically. The east coast is currently preparing for a major winter storm and right now the forecast is for huge impacts in and around Ocean City. The forecast is calling for the storm to move into the area tomorrow evening and blast us from sometime after 6 PM Friday until late Saturday evening. The National Weather Service has us looking at 25 – 35 MPH winds with gusts possible over 40 MPH and snowfall totals from 8-12 inches….with the possibility of over 12 inches. That’s major for our area so not only will there not be any fishing going on through the weekend, some businesses will likely close due to the weather and travel is not going to be recommended unless it’s an emergency. I’ll be sitting around the house cleaning reels and practicing my knots. (video below). We’ll also be doing a snowfall guess giveaway on our Facebook page so check that out!
We had a very cold start to the day today, but the wind wasn’t blowing so it was another chance for some to get out for tautog on the ocean. Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star set his anchors on calm seas and had a great day of it.
Snuck out at dark-thirty in 15 degree, but calm, weather. Carried Courtney’s Uncle, JoJo, plus some of his old friends and their friends.
Ladies dropped our blocks over at a reef I’ve worked on a number of years. Should opportunity arise it would be a great place to target with pipe bundles — we drill and cable 3 to 9 pieces of 8ft long concrete pipe into a single reef unit. Takes a special set of circumstances; the right equipment to load and deploy, plus time to build em. Boy are they effective reef though – would that we might ever build them in their thousands. In the Chesapeake & DE Bays they’d become oyster spat cannons; out front marine coral & mussel meccas.
Fishing wasn’t bad. Wasn’t off the charts either. An OK day.
We again tagged more keepers than throwbacks – and put back 3x more legal fish than were kept.
While some could have taken the boat’s 3 fish limit, and Frank could have boxed a state limit – none did.
And skill? Amazing. Around the rail..
The three gals I had aboard were all great anglers, but Big Sam Beauchamp would be especially proud to watch Haily Kim fish. I mean really proud.
A machine; Sam caught my second state record in 2007 and remains the only angler I’ve ever seen who would spook small tog on purpose. “Go get your momma,” he’d say while others were begging to get bit. If Sam had written the book and made the videos, Haily mastered them all. Hands down one of the best tog anglers I’ve ever seen – and I’ve had amazingly good tog anglers aboard for decades.
Snow storm likely to mess things up a while. Will run open boat trips next week I hope. Winter tog trips will, as ever, be announced in my Fish Report emails.
Cheers All,
Monty
The weather in Florida is colder than normal, but it’s still way better than here. Some of the Fish in OC fleet is enjoying the mostly sunny, warm weather and having some great luck charter fishing as well. Captain Chris Watkowski and the crew of the Spring Mix II are having a blast in Islamorada, FL catching sailfish, yellowtail, small tuna, kingfish, big mutton snapper and more.
Captain Joe Drosey and the crew of Rhonda’s Osprey are fishing out of Singer Island, FL and have been doing really well with the sailfish. Anglers are also boxing some nice mahi and kingfish and releasing some big sharks.
